


Thin Arrogance

by setphasersto_potatosalad



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Animal Abuse, Canonical Child Abuse, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-28
Updated: 2018-11-28
Packaged: 2019-09-02 00:26:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,779
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16775953
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/setphasersto_potatosalad/pseuds/setphasersto_potatosalad
Summary: Rings weren’t regulation in the Republic. Rumor had it that Lord Vader couldn’t stand the sight of them. Armitage was thankful for that as his father’s backhand landed. He crumpled to the floor, careful to keep any sound of pain muffled. Noise always made Father angrier.-A collection of pieces from Hux's memory, pulling all the way up to The Last Jedi. It mostly follows his unhappy childhood with Brendol.





	Thin Arrogance

Rings weren’t regulation in the Republic. Rumor had it that Lord Vader couldn’t stand the sight of them. Armitage was thankful for that as his father’s backhand landed. He crumpled to the floor, careful to keep any sound of pain muffled. Noise always made Father angrier.

The second blow he didn’t realize was coming until it already landed.

Father’s boots were hard and polished. Armitage only hoped the kick to his gut wouldn’t scuff them. He wouldn’t have the energy to do it properly if father continued.

Air forced itself from his lungs at the next kick. His ribs creaked in protest as he forced breath in. It must have been too loud because father grabbed him by the front of his uniform- he was going to have to iron that tonight- and wrenched him upwards. Armitage’s feet scrambled for purchase on the slick tiled floor.

“Listen to what I have to tell you, boy.”

When had he spoken? What had he said? Armitage searched his father’s eyes for any sign of care. All he saw was white hot rage.

“Acknowledge a superior officer when spoken to!” He punctuated his words with another back hand. Armitage went sprawling. Though he tried to cushion his fall, his chin slammed into the floor. His skin split with a wet click.

Another kick, punishment for bleeding. Father didn’t stop until blood, tears, and sick mingled together on the floor.

It would have continued if it weren’t for an urgent beep from Father’s communicator. He left his messed boots and replaced them with a freshly shined pair.

Once the door shut behind him, Armitage peeled himself from the floor. One hand cradled his tender ribs and the other pressed against his chin. He called a medical droid to their quarters and began to clean.

A towel to his chin kept the blood from staining anything else. One drop on the floor would be enough to rouse Father’s ire.

The puddle from the beating was the first to go. Oddly, no one ever asked why their laundry was often so thoroughly soiled. Armitage had to assume droids took care of it.

The medical droid arrived shortly after he finished shining Father’s first boot. The second would have to wait.

As the droid pulled together his broken skin, he remembered how father used to call the droids for him. Once he was tall enough to reach the control panel himself, though, he stopped.

Three stitches and a firm order to be more careful later-

_Young Master Hux, you cannot continue to be so clumsy around the house. Your father is never tripping over his feet, why are you?_

-and the droid was gone. One last boot, he told himself, then he could sleep. His eyes were so heavy. His limbs protested every movement. His chest dully flashed in pain. His shoulder was stiff as if his joint was made of cold honey. Shoe polish was so old fashioned- none of the other officers bothered. Old shoes were thrown out or pass onto an underling. Father said it was a waste, that he didn’t like the stiffness of new boots, that Armitage needed to keep quiet and mind his business like a tolerable child.

His eyes tried to close. He couldn’t let them. It would only be worse if Father found him asleep on the floor with one boot finished and the other polished with his sleepy drool.

The boots were finished and promptly returned to Father’s closet.

When he returned to his room, the clock told him he had four hours before Father woke him. And if Father was still working, that would mean he would have even less time to sleep. He couldn’t imagine the irritation that would be waiting for him tomorrow. He just hoped for time for the ribs to heal.

Soft officer’s sheets were still too coarse against his bruise mottled skin. Father never liked to see what he’d done. If Armitage bruised, that was only more of an embarrassment. Officers to be did not hurt. They especially did not bruise. He laid over the bedspread and stared at the ceiling.

Would things have been different if Mother was around? Maybe she would have been kind to him. Maybe she could have patched him up when Father finished with him. She could help him with the chores. Or even maybe, perhaps, she could whisk him away. No more bruises. No more hurt. No more tears. A mother instead. A mother who held him and told him he was good and smart and never shouted or kicked the air from his lungs.

  
-

  
Morning came too soon.

“Wake up.”

Armitage sat up immediately, never mind the protest his body gave him. Father could always do worse. He set the pain aside. Hurt would wait until Father was gone.

“Yes, sir.”

Would a mother make him breakfast in bed, Armitage wondered as he cooked breakfast for Father. He sat at the table reading reports from the night before. The purple under his eyes told Armitage he’d only had two hours of sleep at best.

Armitage laid the plate in front of Father. He took a bite and grunted in non-displeasure. Hux sat on the other side of the table and watched him eat. His stomach twisted in protest. He would have shared his rations with Mother. He wouldn’t let her go hungry.

The question left his mouth before he could think.

“What was mother like?”

It hung in the air like a dead man. It swayed, back and forth. Armitage saw a moment of rage pass over Father’s face, then he shook his head in disgust. He wiped his mouth.

“She was a stupid whore.”

Father left. His napkin was abandoned on the floor. Hux ate what was left over.

  
-

  
_An officer is only as good as what they’ll put their cock in._

Father told him that after drinking a half bottle of something he couldn’t pronounce. Then he laughed and drank more. He broke Armitage’s arm that night.

  
-

  
Life would have been easier if he weren’t around. Armitage briefly considered Father’s blaster. He’d had it sequestered away where he thought his son couldn’t find. He was a coward for a man with such a powerful kick. Even if he got the blaster, the mess would have been troublesome.

Hux put away the dishes.

-

It was the anniversary of one of Father’s victories against the Resistance. They were on some planet at some gala with some dignitary. He didn’t try to remember their names. The back of his head throbbed where Father had slammed it into the wall the night before.

Father was pleasantly drunk. He let Armitage be that night.

-

An officer that took fancy of him gave him a blaster on his seventeenth birthday. Once Father caught wind of it, he dismantled the blaster and smacked Armitage in the temple with it. The officer was found dead the next day.

-

The first time Armitage made his father smile was at his graduation. He was announced as top of the class by far. He had the most hours in the simulations and the firing range. He had the highest scores in every subject. There was nothing he hadn’t mastered.

“I knew you had it in you, Armitage,” Father told him when they returned home.

The blaster was restored to him along with a glass of scotch. Armitage took both with a smile and thanked him like a proper soldier. He waited until Father was asleep to retch the scotch away.

-

“A toast. To your promotion!”

Hux raised his glass. It stayed full.

-

Armitage once brought home a stray. It was a tiny little thing, black and grey. It whined if he put it down and licked him if it got close enough to his face.

Father broke its neck in front of him and beat him for weeping.

“Stop crying,” he said as he called for the medical droid, “You’re making a fool out of yourself.”

-

“Leave them be.”

“But General-!”

“Do you have ears under that helmet? I told you to leave them be. Make yourself useful and make it far away from me. Dismissed.”

The trooper briefly saluted before scurrying away.

Hux knelt in front of the children. They couldn’t have been any older than seven. He reached his hand out slowly and smiled.

“My name is Armitage Hux. I’m a general in the First Order.”

The children reared back, and he hushed them gently.

“It’s alright. We can keep you safe.” Their parents were likely dead. If they weren’t, they soon would be. Opportunities for orphans on this hellscape of a planet were nil at best. Children that could get close enough to a storm trooper to try to take their blaster? They wouldn’t last a night without someone to keep them in line. But they would make good officers for the Order.

“Can you walk?” One of the three children shook their head. Hux carried her. The other two clung to his greatcoat.

Before the night was out their injuries were dealt with, their families dealt with, and their places secured in the orders most prestigious academy. As he finished booking their passage, he felt satisfaction seep into his bones. They would be taken care of.

-

“Supreme Leader.” Hux knelt before Snoke.

“Armitage…” His voice rumbled through the throne room, but that wasn’t what pulled Hux’s shoulders taught. “I wanted to talk about your father. Did you kill him with your hands?”

“No, Supreme Leader.”

“Mm.” Snoke paused and sat back in his throne. “Rather spineless of you.”

Rage bubbled in Hux’s gut, though he said nothing.

“Have you ever known the pleasure of killing someone with nothing but your own self, General? No weapons, no outside influence? Yourself. And yourself alone.”

“Yes, Supreme Leader.”

Snoke’s eyebrows canted upwards for a fraction of a section. “When?’

“When I was born.”

The Supreme Leader laughed. He laughed heartily, like this was the first time in years he had heard something so entertaining. Before the laughter died, Hux was dismissed with a halfhearted wave of Snoke’s hand.

-

Ren killed Snoke. Hux was no fool. He only wished he could have seen it for himself.

-

Their new Supreme Leader slammed him against a control panel. The pain was nostalgic.

-

When Father died, it was the middle of the day. He didn’t beg for his life nearly as much as Armitage wished he would have. His brains splattered against the windows. Hux called a droid to clean up the mess.

-

“Any last requests, General?”

“Bury me by my mother.”

“You don’t want a drink or anything?’

“I want you to make it quick.”

**Author's Note:**

> me first star wars fic
> 
> title is from "abuse of SID" by hurt
> 
> plz comment im begging
> 
> (also unbetad)


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